In underground mining, in some cases also for the transport of bulk materials, it is known to transport the material to be transported by means of an apron conveyor belt of an apron conveyor, which, as an endless transport chain belt, circulates between chain wheels disposed in a drive station and in a reversing station. The material transport then takes place on the top side of the transport plates, whilst the conveyor chain serves only to move the transport plate. Such an apron conveyor is known, for example, from DE 976 637.
In modern underground mining, so-called scraper chain conveyors, in which the mined material is moved as debris by means of drivers in an upwardly open conveyor trough, are generally used. The material is here discharged onto the conveyor base of the conveyor trough and is there led out of the mining region by means of the drivers and delivered, for example, to a belt conveyor in the drift. DE 197 21 201 B4 discloses, for ore mining operations, a face conveyor, in which the conveyor chain circulates in a chain guide channel on the respective inner side of the feed strand and return strand for the chain belt. The drivers consist of angular scrapers, wherein the return strand and the feed strand are disposed side by side and in obliquely angled-off arrangement and the diverting station is provided with a tensioning device for changing the tension of the circulating chain belt. Such a construction leads to a relatively flat conveyor, wherein the main field of application of the conveyor from DE 197 21 201 B4 is the mining of ore using the blasting method.
DE 20 2012 100 777 U1 discloses an apron conveyor in which the feed strand and the return strand for the conveyor chain provided with transport plates lie side by side and the chain wheel in the reversing station can be displaced by means of a tensioning cylinder relative to the chain wheel in a drive station. The present disclosure relates to a reversing station, in particular, for an apron conveyor of the kind which is known from DE 20 2012 100 777 U1 and in which the transport plates are tiltable relative to a chain connecting part in order, by folding the plate away downwards, to deliver to another conveyor the material transported horizontally on the transport plate belt.
The present disclosure is directed, at least in part, to improving or overcoming one or more aspects of prior systems.